The Central leaders of the BJP are likely to take a decision on the State leadership of the party within a day or two.
“Indications available from Delhi state that the leadership issue of three States including Odisha will be resolved soon and national president Rajnath Singh will nominate the presidents of Jharkhand, Maharastra and Odisha latest by Friday,” party sources said.
With the State BJP leaders failing to find a consensus candidate for the post of president, the ball is now in the court of the Central leadership of the party.
A core team comprising LK Advani, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari and Ram Lal besides Singh will select one among three front runners - KV Singhdeo, Basanta Panda and Nayan Kishore Mohanty. Though Singhdeo is believed to be ahead of the two others, a few Central leaders have reportedly recommended the name of national general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan for the State job.
Pradhan, a Rajya Sabha member from Bihar, is reportedly working hard to get a key organisational post in Rajnath’s team. Sources said he is not interested to come to the State politics due to fierce factionalism. While BJP’s popularity is at all-time low, it will be a tough job for the new president to carry the faction-ridden party to the next general election which is due in 2014, sources close to Pradhan said.
It was speculated that the successor of Jual Oram will be named before the March 2 national council meeting. The national BJP president delayed the matter as several factions of the State BJP lobbied for their candidates in Delhi.
While a power group of the party recommended the candidature of Singhdeo, the State leadership had recommended the names of former MLA Basanata Panda and Nayan. However, Murali Sharma who was supporting the candidature of Mohanty queered the pitch by joining the fray.
A group of Sharma’s supporters met the national BJP president in the second week of February claiming the former has more support within the party than Mohanty.